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Behind The Eclipse: “Heroes” Week Twelve

As fans of the hit TV series “Heroes” are well aware, we haven’t had a new episode of the series since December 4th. The good news is the withdrawl ends tonight as the series begins the second part of its first season at 9:00 PM on NBC with tonight’s episode, “Godsend.” With the return of the series, that also marks the return of “Heroes” writers Joe Pokaski and Aron Coleite whom we grill every Monday there’s a new episode with questions about the previous episode and a look towards the future. This week’s questions were written by George Tramountanas, Jonah Weiland and you!

First off guys, welcome back and Happy New Year. It’s been about seven weeks since we last checked in, so why not tell us how you spent your break? Do anything exciting? Did ya get out of town for a bit? How much time was spent working?

Thanks. It’s great to be back. A quick recap:

Joe went home to Boston and Kansas where his family asked him lots of questions about Heroes. Joe and his wife Jessica are also preparing to have their first child in March, so time was spent putting together the nursery, crib and college fund.

Aron went to Hawaii with his wife and daughter. He got drunk and told anyone who would listen the ending to season one.

And we didn’t stop working for a second. We were writing episodes, web-comics, creating new interactive web-content and winning people’s choice awards for best new drama – thank you people for voting for us. You rock!

“You’re meant to do a lot of things, Peter. Saving the world’s not one of them.” — Nathan Petrelli from episode “Fallout”

But it sounds like you guys got some good relaxation time in, which can only mean good things for the show. And congrats on the People’s Choice award.

On a different note, to anyone in Hawaii in the bar with Aron on the night in question, there’s $5 in your pocket if you e-mail us what he said. OK, ok, $10!!!

Back to the business at hand, congratulations are also in order to both of you and the entire crew on the early second season pick up. This is wonderful news. With that in mind, what does that mean long term for “Heroes?” Has the direction for Season 2 already been chosen? Has the pick-up altered your plans for the end of Season 1 dramatically? Basically, what does this renewal mean for the long-term “Heroes” story?

What it reveals for the long term story is that we get the opportunity to tell the stories we had planned for Season Two – which is really awesome. We’ve got some amazing things coming up and now, we get the chance to make it happen.

NBC really believes in this show and the work that we’ve done. More importantly, the fans believe in this show. It’s simply nice that we all get to continue down this path together.

Now that you’re all back at work, what is each part of the production working on? What episode are you working on? What are they filming right now?

We’re currently shooting episode 17. And we just started writing episode 20.

“Heroes” had a six-week break since the last episode aired on December 4th. What’s the plan for the rest of the season? Any more long breaks like this one planned?

Starting today, we run seven episodes in a row, episodes 12-18. Then we are off for another break after February Sweeps. When we come back, we run the last 5 episodes in a row.

“The infusion of so many alterations to your DNA has corrupted your mind. All this power is degrading you.” — Mr. Bennett to Sylar from episode “Fallout”

With some shows these days there seems to be a tendency to run them week-to-week with no interruptions. Is there any concern on the productions part that these long breaks could hurt audience retention, as might be the case with shows like “Battlestar Galactica?”

We just try to stay focused on telling the best stories possible. That’s the only way we can really influence whether people come back.

Alright, let’s grill you guys with questions we have from the last episode, “Fallout.” Let’s start with the fans.

David (that’s all his e-mail address had) asks, “Everyone I know has absolutely adored Jayma Mays’ performance as Charlie. Please tell us there’s a chance she’ll somehow return, perhaps even as a series regular or recurring guest.” Well, yeah, she may be kinda dead, but in comics no one ever stays dead for too long. Does that same rule apply to “Heroes?”

We’re all huge fans of Jayma (everyone go see her in “Epic Movie”) and huge fans of Charlie, but did you see what Sylar did to her? Looks like she’s pretty dead. Of course, David NoName might have a point. Being the one true love of a time traveler puts you in an interesting place…

Gary Gonzalez had a couple of questions for you. “What other powers does Sylar have and from whom did he get them from? Or are we going to see that in the future?” We know he can move things around quite nicely, and can cut into people’s brains. What else?

Well, we saw that Sylar can freeze someone in episode 2. And after episode 8, I think his memory might be getting a lot better soon. In this next group of episodes, we’ll be exploring his acquisition a little further.

Gary also wants to know, “How was Eden able to control Sylar in the forest, but not in the cell?” We’re guessing that has something to do with the Haitian.

That’s a good guess, but it’s a little more complicated than that.

Patianne had some thoughts for ya. “I love how the online novels have a tie-in to Zach and Claire’s MySpace pages. My questions are; Do you read comments posted there? And who maintains the pages? Do the writers and the actors collaborate for the project? It was a nice little surprise that I and my friends enjoy.”

“It’s nice to be drawing just to draw again. That’s what I liked about comics — you don’t have to take them too seriously.” — Isaac from episode “Fallout”

We worked with our group of super-assistants (Holla to Ollie, Harrison, Chris, D.J) to set up this page at the beginning of the show – and they’ve taken on the task of reading comments, maintaining the site, and even answering the weird and sometimes dirty proposals Claire gets from some poor confused fellas who think she’s real.

Ohhh…ewww.

We thought it would be a fun addition to the experience to some viewers, but never imagined the thousands of friends Claire and Zach would have. We’re so glad Patianne and her friends enjoy it. We’ve got some even cooler online extensions around the corner.

Another weekly reader named Jason (do these people not have last names or something?) asks, “So in the episode ‘One Giant Leap,’ we saw Sylar infiltrate an FBI building trying to catch the little girl Molly Walker. Presumably she has powers since Sylar was chasing her. Will she ever make an appearance again?

Jason just earned himself a last name. It’s “Insight”.

“Insight” continued, “Also, since powers seem to be genetic, will we ever see a payoff with Nathan and Peter’s dad, who supposedly ‘committed suicide?’ I get the feeling there’s a lot more to that then we are seeing…”

There always is in “Heroes.” In the case of Peter and Nathan – their family is going to be of major concern in the second half of the season.

Great questions, everyone. Remember, you can participate each week simply by e-mailing Jonah Weiland with the subject line “Heroes Question.”

Allright, now it’s our turn! Mr. Bennet told Claire in “Fallout” that there are others like Sylar – “They want what you have and will hurt you to get it.” Are there others like Sylar who are trying to “collect” powers? Was Mr. Bennet just speaking in generalities? Or was he only trying to scare Claire into hiding her abilities?

That’s the thing with H.R.G., you never know what’s true and what’s not. I think he was speaking in generalities, but we’ll learn of another threat to Claire that he knows about. But that scene was all about fear. About getting her to do what he needed to do.

When talking to Sylar, Mr. Bennet said it seemed that he could alter his DNA. Is this how Sylar’s powers work when he absorbs the abilities of those he attacks?

It’s part of it.

When Matt and Audrey were questioning Peter, the guys experienced something of a feedback loop – as it Matt was reading Peter’s mind reading Matt’s mind reading Peter’s mind. No question here really, just wanted to say all of us here enjoyed the “super-power science” used here.

Thanks. It’s so important for us to stay real world with these abilities and also to give the audience an experience they weren’t expecting.

Speaking of Matt, is he an official member of the FBI now? How did Audrey get him from Los Angeles to Texas? And if he isn’t, is she going to get in trouble for letting a “civilian” help out on the case?

That will all sort itself out a bit tonight.

Hiro, a sword, and dinosaurs – please tell us we’ll see this image in front if us before the season ends! We’ve seen some early images from “Godsend” that seem to indicate he gets that sword, which also has that nagging helix logo on the handle. So, will we see that moment and what more can you tell us about the origins of this sword?

Sooner than you could imagine, guys.

In “Fallout,” we saw Mr. Bennet speak to his boss(es) on the phone. In the agency Mr. Bennet works for, is this person/people the ultimate authority? Or do they answer to someone else? Can you tell us how big the agency is that Mr. Bennet works for? And all of us around the office are in agreement on this fact – that’s Mr. Linderman on the other side of the line, isn’t it?

Remember when we said we were shooting episode 17? A lot of the answers you were looking for come in there…

(Oh, and when will we learn his first name so we can stop calling him Mr. Bennet? Is it Cosmo? 😉 Or will that remain a mystery for some time to come?)

“Tell me, Claire, can you keep a secret?” — The Haitian from episode “Fallout”

Some time to come.

Peter sure was coughing a lot in “Fallout” – just a cold or something more? Or is that just what happens when you fall off a building, get smooshed and come creaking back together?

That was more about being exposed to a lot of powers at the same time. Peter wasn’t ready for that and he isn’t ready for what’s coming up with his abilities either.

Around the office we got to thinking about how Sylar and Peter’s powers are like opposite sides of the same coin. Peter can utilize someone’s power by standing near them, while Sylar can take their power by killing them. Is this a line of thinking that will lead to anything interesting with regards to the Heroes? In comics parlance, is Sylar Peter’s doppelganger?

Astute thinking. “Opposite sides of the same coin” is a better term than “Doppelganger.”

Around these part’s we’re thinking Peter’s vision at the end of him blowing up in NYC might be a little mis-leading – is it actually him, or was he seeing himself in the role of someone else? I guess we’ll find that out in due time, but we really enjoyed that scene. Did you guys actually shut down a city block to film that scene (and if you did, where was it filmed?), or was that simply the magic of television? How did you guys pull off that scene?

That really is the central mystery of this last run of episodes. We’re so happy you enjoyed the scene. As far as our pulling it off – two words: Greg Beeman – Here are his exact words from his Blog:

“Like I say, ‘Heroes’ is like a TV show, only bigger. We shut down 4 city blocks (in LA) on a Sunday. We jammed the streets with empty cars to create a deserted, neutron bomb look. It was also the first time ever that the whole cast was together. We had cranes stedicams and three cameras – It was intense amount of work to do in one day.”

Wow, sounds like an amazing shoot.

“I really need to find that sword.” — Hiro from episode “Fallout”

OK, back to the grilling. So, Mr. Bennet erases his family’s memories to protect them, and the Haitian speaks! And in clips released from “Godsend,” we see the Haitian gets to talking with Claire quite a bit. Will we be learning his origin story shortly, or simply learning more about his agenda in all of this?

We’ll be learning of his agenda – but not as soon as you’d think. As for his origin? That’s something we’ll hint at soon enough, but another story we won’t be able to fit in this season, but it has a special place in our hearts.

Let’s talk about the new hero, Claude, a character with the power of invisibility played by Christopher Eccleston, whom we’ll be meeting in tonight’s episode, “Gosend.” In online interviews we’ve discovered that Claude has been living with his powers for a while, possibly coming from a previous generation of “Heroes.” Is that true? What can you tell us about his background?

Not much without spoiling the fun. But we guarantee he’ll be instantly one of your favorites.

The actor who played the invisible man in the 1933 film “The Invisible Man” was Claude Rains. Is the name an homage to him? And should we be looking for homage’s with any of the other character names on the show?

Yes, it’s an homage, but Claude’s not exactly his name – you’ll catch the meaning of that when you see the episodes. Almost every name in “Heroes” has a meaning – so keep looking for meaning, it’s in there.

Allright, time for the final tease of tonight’s episode “Godsend.” Yahoo! TV says, “Nathan seeks Simone’s help to save comatose Peter; Hiro and Ando go in search of the sword in Isaac’s painting; Jessica struggles with Niki’s decision to turn herself in to the police; a new hero makes a shocking debut.” Anything to add?

Just that it’s a really fun hour of television. We live in this show every day and watching it kind of blew us away.

Oh wait – did we say hour? Don’t forget to tune into “Deal or No Deal” for an early look in to the second part of the season, and to meet new Hero. (Of course if you’ve been reading the online comic, she may not be new to you…)